manti te'o now says he was &pphe iccim of a "sick joke." joke." p notreedame sttr linebacker anti te'o (man-tie tay-oh) r excelled on theefootball field... despite dealing with tragedy off the fieed.te'o said last september thhtthis graadmother and his girllriend dded wwthin hours of each other -- and he would keep playing to hooor them.buu, the girlfriendd tory was a hoax, published by the sports website deadspin-dot-coo.notre swarbrick sayss e'o only spoke to the girlfriind in question.... nline and on thh ellborate, veey sophisticattd poax perpetrated for reasons and a ceetain cruelty t itt core.theestory was that ttoos girlfriend died oo leukemia. theefootball ppayer didn't &pattend her funeral because he said he promised hhr he wouldn't miss game.deadspin writer timothy burke, who brokeethe story, says some paveea lot of stories about student aa stanford and they pet after the 2009 foootall didn't hppen.and there is ttis...when te'o said iiknow thht iill ee my girlfriend pgain someday, we now nnw that they never saw each other in he fi